Cornelius Dupree: Innocent Man Spent 30 Years in Texas Prison

A Texas man, who spent 30 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, will finally have his record cleared.

Cornelius Dupree, 51, was accused of the rape and armed robbery of a woman in Dallas in 1979. He was never tried for the rape, but was convicted of the robbery and sentenced to 75 years in prison.

Howeve,r new DNA tests proved he could not be the attacker, and he was released from prison in July. Wednesday prosecutors will ask a judge to officially overturn the conviction and clear Dupree's name.

The DNA testing also excluded a second defendant, Anthony Massingill, who was subsequently convicted in another sexual assault case and sentenced to life in prison. Massingill maintains his innocence. DNA testing in that second case is ongoing.

According to court documents, two gunmen forced a woman and a man into a car in November 1979. After robbing them, they ordered the man out. They then drove to a park and raped the woman. They let her go, but stole her rabbit-fur coat.

About five days later, two men whose descriptions did not match Dupree tried to sell the rabbit-fur coat at a grocery store.

Dupree and Massingill were arrested a month later because they looked similar to two suspects being sought in another sexual assault and robbery.

The victim picked both men out of a photo line-up, but the man could not identify either defendant. Still, they were tried and convicted.

Dupree spent more time wrongly imprisoned than any other inmate in Texas, which has freed 41 innocent prisoners through DNA since 2001.